The Diablo III Website announces Blizzard has recently handed out a bunch of bans to Diablo III players for violating the terms of service for Blizzard's action/RPG sequel. They don't specify how many accounts are barred due to this, but they do offer more details on why: "In each of these cases players used a hack program for exploitive purposes, for example to zoom out their game view and kill monsters that were beyond the normal range at which AI is triggered. As we do with all Blizzard games, we will continue to monitor Diablo III for cheating and take action as needed." They outline various actions that could trigger such discipline so players can make sure they are keeping their noses clean. On a related note, Blend Games continues their criticism of the game by rounding up reports of Linux users who claim they have been banned after playing the game through WINE, unmoved by Blizzard's comments that they cannot guarantee that users of an unsupported operating system may be incorrectly tagged as hackers.

strong placebo wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 18:50:Perhaps 2 years from now, Blizzard will release a single player version of the game that is completely off-line. Given the mediocre reception of the game, it is not impossible.

From what I've read, that won't be possible without a lot of work, which once the game starts winding down revenue wise, seems unlikely that they'd be willing to put in. As I understand it, the server manages monster AI, loot drops, map data, and a whole host of other shit. None of that is on the player client, so you'd have to code that into the player client if you wanted to allow offline play.

Any Blizzard employees on Blues care to speak to that?

Having seen a bit of the current warez version, the monsters are in, but they just stand around doing nothing - the AI and loot tables are apparently server side. So yeah, it would be a lot of work for a warez dude.

On Blizzard's part, I'm painfully ignorant on game design, but if there is stuff living server side could it just be a matter of moving the missing code/data from the server to a client download that would allow offline singleplayer for users? I don't expect it to ever happen, as the Blizzard team are now a bunch of tools, but I was just curious.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

strong placebo wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 18:50:Perhaps 2 years from now, Blizzard will release a single player version of the game that is completely off-line. Given the mediocre reception of the game, it is not impossible.

From what I've read, that won't be possible without a lot of work, which once the game starts winding down revenue wise, seems unlikely that they'd be willing to put in. As I understand it, the server manages monster AI, loot drops, map data, and a whole host of other shit. None of that is on the player client, so you'd have to code that into the player client if you wanted to allow offline play.

ViRGE wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 18:17:The game has been purposely gutted for that auction house. Rather than letting people cheese it up for fun, Blizzard keeps it extremely locked down so that they can make a profit off of selling you stuff. It's a single-player non-competitive game; these kinds of restrictions should not exist.

Agreed.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

strong placebo wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 18:50:Perhaps 2 years from now, Blizzard will release a single player version of the game that is completely off-line. Given the mediocre reception of the game, it is not impossible.

Blizzard can't admit they screwed this game up royally - there's no way they're walking away from online only for D3.

Ozmodan wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 14:06:it is so easy to dual boot a system, why in the world would anyone try to play Diablo III through vine. Stupid is as stupid does.

Dual boot into what? The OS I don't own? Pot, kettle.

(Linux is the only OS on my machine at home. I only buy games that are known to run well in WINE (eg Guild Wars 2, Drox Operative, Borderlands) and accept the risk that they may occasionally stop working due to publisher decisions (eg Borderlands DLC) or technical issues (GW2 without the -dx9single flag). The fact of the matter is there are enough good games that I have the luxury to choose those that don't incur the one-time OS tax.)

(full disclosure: I haven't played nor will I probably ever play Diablo III)

ViRGE wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 11:21:I'm still dumbfounded by how we've reached the point where you aren't allowed to cheat in a single-player game.

Doh, it is certainly not single player with the auction house, I am dumbfounded you even thought it was.

D2 could be played single player. I think that's the point here. They went from an optional multi-player game to a mandatory multi-player game.I know for sure I don't really care about playing online, LAN would have been plenty for me (or just a straight up tcp 4 player game would have been good)edit: Especially since 1/2 to 3/4 of my Hardcore characters died due to lag.

ViRGE wrote on Nov 9, 2012, 11:21:I'm still dumbfounded by how we've reached the point where you aren't allowed to cheat in a single-player game.

Doh, it is certainly not single player with the auction house, I am dumbfounded you even thought it was.

It was a trick question to get someone to bring up the AH as a response, which you fell for, so thank you.

The game has been purposely gutted for that auction house. Rather than letting people cheese it up for fun, Blizzard keeps it extremely locked down so that they can make a profit off of selling you stuff. It's a single-player non-competitive game; these kinds of restrictions should not exist.